1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a control method for the information processing apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some hard disk drives (HDDs) are configured to record the number of times of power-on/off that represents how many times the HDD was turned on/off.
The number of times of power-on/off of the HDD is used in various control operations, so that it is required to be accurately recorded.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-140492 discusses a method for setting a waiting time to be waited before the HDD is turned off based on a cumulative value of energizing time of the HDD and a cumulative value of the number of times of power-on/off of the HDD. In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-140492, in a case where a time period measured by a timer comes to exceed a set waiting time, the HDD is turned off.
On the other hand, the HDD causes a head to be retracted to a location other than a storage area of the disk when the HDD stops the disk from rotating.
This retraction of the head can prevent the storage area of the disk from being damaged by the head when the HDD is suffered from an impact while the rotation of the disk is stopped.
Main examples of a head retraction system include a load/unload system and a contact start stop (CSS) system.
In the load/unload system, the head is retracted to an outside of the storage area of the disk. In the load/unload system, the number of times of power-on/off is recorded at a time when the HDD is turned off.
In the CSS system, the head is retracted to an inside of the storage area of the disk. In the CSS system, the number of times of power-on/off is recorded at a time when the head is retracted.
Recently, in an information processing apparatus, in view of power saving, such a configuration is studied that a central processing unit (CPU) is turned off at a time when a job is completed and thereafter, the HDD is turned off after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed.
However, in the above described configuration, the number of times of power-on/off may not be accurately recorded in the following case.
FIG. 6 illustrates a case where the CPU is turned on again (because of an input of a job or the like) after once it is turned off in the above described configuration.
In FIG. 6, in the case of HDDs of the load/unload system, since the number of times of power-on/off is recorded at a time when the HDD is turned off, the number of times of power-on/off is accurately recorded.
However, in the case of HDDs of the CSS system, since the number of times of power-on/off is recorded at a time when the head is retracted, the number of times of power-on/off may not be accurately recorded.
It is difficult to know which system is employed in retracting the head based on an appearance of the HDD or information recorded in the HDD.
Therefore, the information processing apparatus is required to be designed in such a manner that the number of times of power-on/off is accurately recorded regardless of which system is used in the HDD.